Program helps immigrant farmers extend growing season

ROCKY COMFORT, Mo. -- A state-funded program to help southwest Missouri Hmong famers and others use a high-tunnel farming method has taught one family some valuable lessons in the first year.

High-tunnel farming involves growing crops inside a plastic-covered structure, designed to extend the growing season by about three months.

Neng and Zoua Yang and their son, Fue, have been working in two high tunnels since they were erected in December near Rocky Comfort with a $60,452 grant from the Missouri Department of Agriculture, The Joplin Globe reported.

"I like it a lot better than working in the fields," Fue Yang said. "You can have a little bit of shade."

The project also serves as a teaching farm that provides help for Hmong and other area residents interested in the concept.

The Yangs have learned the proper amount of watering and how to deal with pesticide drift since they began working in the high tunnels.

They are growing tomatoes, peppers and eggplant and being mentored by Hector Troyer, a Stark City, Missouri, farmer.

"It's been kind of tough this year," Yang said. "This is our first year, so it's been a big learning curve."

Eileen Nichols, a volunteer manager for the Webb City Farmers Market, said another area Hmong family plans to erect a high tunnel in September, and other area farmers are adding to the high tunnels they already have.

"High tunnels are becoming very important to the local agricultural scene," Nichols said.

The Yangs immigrated to the United States from Laos, a Southeast Asian country, in 1980 and in 2009 bought 43 acres near Rocky Comfort, where they also raise about 40 part-Angus cattle and Asian chickens, which have dark meat.

Yang said he plans to pull out zucchini in one of the high tunnels and put in winter crops, probably spinach, lettuce and carrots, and he wants to try a new variety of tomato.

Another challenge is dealing with weeds, which "are just growing everywhere."

About 1,330 Hmong people live in southwest Missouri, according to the 2010 census, compared with 26 Hmong residents in the state in 2000.